Rescue teams rushed to help survivors

Governments, charities, and the UN rushed emergency aid to south Asia yesterday to help hundreds of thousands of homeless people and join in trying to dig out any survivors from the ruins of the worst earthquake ever to hit Pakistan.

The Department for International Development sent a chartered plane with rescue experts within hours of the disaster and was dispatching thousands of blankets, sleeping mats and tarpaulins from pre-positioned stocks in the region. The rescuers found five survivors under the rubble of a 10-storey block of flats which collapsed in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital.

China, a close ally of Pakistan, offered £3.5m in aid, the biggest amount according to Pakistani officials. The US, Japan, Thailand, Germany and Australia pledged nearly £500,000.

Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharraf, appealed to the world for help, saying: "We seek international assistance. We have enough manpower, but we need financial support." The country needed medicine, tents, cargo helicopters and financial assistance to help survivors, he said.

The UN sent an eight-member team to Pakistan to help set up a centre for coordinating its emergency response. Ann Veneman, director of the UN children's agency, Unicef, said children made up half the population of the quake-affected areas and would be vulnerable to hunger, cold, illness and trauma.

"Getting immediate life-saving relief into the region will be our priority for the next hours and days," she said. Unicef sent blankets, clothing, tents, medical supplies, food for infants and water purification tablets from a warehouse in Karachi in southern Pakistan.

India's prime minister, Manmohan Singh, phoned Gen Musharraf to offer assistance with relief and rescue work, as the disaster produced a further easing of tensions between the two countries. Parts of India were also devastated.

A Chinese emergency response team with 50 members arrived in Islamabad yesterday bringing search dogs, communications equipment, blankets, medical and relief supplies. A second Chinese planeload of relief goods was due today. A Japanese disaster team of 50 was also due in Islamabad and Russia planned to send a plane carrying emergency workers, trucks, equipment and supplies to last for two weeks. The Malaysian Red Crescent sent a relief team, as did other south-east Asian countries, including Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore.

But the US-led coalition and a Nato-led peacekeeping force in Afghanistan said yesterday they had no plans to send helicopters or other equipment to aid victims in neighbouring Pakistan. The two forces have dozens of heavy-lift helicopters and transport aircraft based in Afghanistan. Such craft are much needed to rush aid to quake survivors.

Islamic Relief, an international charity which has its world headquarters in Birmingham, allocated £2m to its immediate relief effort. The organisation's deputy manager for the UK, Aziz Rajab-Ali, said the charity was well-placed to help those affected by the natural disaster as it had a major office in Pakistan. "We are in a good position to help these people as we are already there on the ground and we are already doing what we can 24 hours after the event. We are already looking after 10,000 people," he said.